Regulating Interior Landmarks: New York Court Says Duties Don't End

In 1989, the LPC designated a mechanical clock located in a gallery at 346 Broadway as an interior landmark. At the time, the building was owned by the City of New York, and the clock was maintained by a city worker, who would wind, oil and maintain the clock, and who gave weekly tours to members of the public. In 2013, the city sold the building to a private owner with a plan to repurpose the building for a combination of retail and residential hotel uses, and a community facility used for a digital media arts center. The deed indicated that the purchase was subject to the 1989 notice of landmark designation.

The following year, the new owner of the building applied to the LPC for a certificate of appropriateness (COA) to enable conversion of the clocktower space into a triplex private apartment, to disconnect the mechanical mechanism of the clock, and to electrify it. At the public hearing, a variety of LPC commissioners expressed misgivings about the proposal, but the LPC counsel informed the commissioners that the LPC did not have power under the Landmarks Law to require interior-designated spaces to remain public, or to require the clock mechanism to remain operable. In light of the opinion by Counsel, the LPC approved the COA.